HOWELL — The Howell Township Council has joined a list of prospective organizations that may attempt to lease space in the recently closed Southard School.

Mayor Robert Walsh announced at a June 30 council meeting that formal correspondence has been sent to the Howell Board of Education expressing interest in using the Southard School on Kent Road for municipal meetings.

"The governing body has been speaking with the school board over the past week to discuss options," he said.

Walsh said Township Manager Helene Schlegel has been communicating with the school district and will be having a meeting to explore the option of leasing the facility.

The council's interest in the Southard School — which was closed by the Howell School District at the end of the 2008-09 school year — is due to the deterioration of Howell's municipal buildings and the possibility of not having sufficient funds in the future to fix them, Walsh said.

"The buildings here are in disrepair, and there will come a time where we would have to do something as far as a newer facility or put millions of dollars into these buildings," he said.

Walsh said he believes it is important to discuss occupying space in the Southard School beyond township meetings.

"I think it is the governing body's obligation

to at least explore an interest, to see if it will fit and to see if it will benefit the citizens of Howell," he said. "Between the governing body and the Board of Education, it's all township money. We might as well use the resources we have." The council may be following in the footsteps of other organizations that were approved at a June 17 Board of Education meeting to move

forward with negotiations with school officials regarding the lease of the Southard School.

The Police Athletic League's beforeschool and after-school programs, the Cheder School, the Cornerstone Calvary Church and the Acelero Headstart program, a federally funded preschool, are all contenders to rent space in the Southard School.

Ron Sanasac, the school district's assistant business administrator, said negotiations with these entities are still in the early stages and no time period or fees have been discussed yet.